KYC-Ready Architecture and Permissioned Pools

While Helios’s core protocol is permissionless (anyone with BTC can lend or borrow pseudonymously, consistent with DeFi ethos), it also supports an optional KYC layer for institutions:

• Permissionless Core: By default, Helios is open to all – users do not need to verify identity to use the base pools. This ensures accessibility and aligns with “DeFi for everyone.” However, Helios recognizes that some institutional capital cannot enter completely permissionless pools due to compliance mandates.

• Permissioned Pools: Helios can instantiate segregated lending pools that are permissioned, meaning only whitelisted addresses can participate. For example, a special pool could be created where only KYC-verified institutions (as approved by some off-chain validator) can deposit or borrow. This is similar to Aave Arc’s approach of whitelisting institutional participants in a separate deployment. In Helios’s design, the same validators and contracts can enforce that addresses have a valid KYC attestation before allowing interactions.

• Whitelisting Mechanism: A trusted third party (or consortium) can serve as a “whitelister” – for instance, a regulated custodian or compliance service provider. They could issue signed credentials (on-chain or via oracle) asserting an address belongs to a KYC’d entity. Helios validators would check for this credential when operating the permissioned pool. Addresses without it would be rejected. This way, institutions can get a green-light to use Helios in a walled-garden environment.

• Coexistence: Both permissionless and permissioned pools can run in parallel. They will be separate instances so that institutional users don’t accidentally mingle with unknown parties. However, they could share code and infrastructure. The permissioned pool might have slightly different parameters (or asset choices) to cater to needs of institutions (e.g., perhaps only allow certain assets that regulators are okay with).

• Institutional Gateway: A custodian firm could play a role here by running a Helios validator or gateway for a permissioned pool, similar to how Fireblocks ran whitelisting for Aave Arc. In this setup, custodian firm could onboard its custody clients to Helios’s institutional pool, ensuring all participants are known and compliant. This gives institutions a familiar trust anchor while still benefiting from Helios’s smart contracts.

The benefit of this dual approach is flexibility: Helios can cater to DeFi users in a decentralized manner, but also provide a path for regulated entities to participate under required constraints. The architecture – using validators and smart contracts – was designed from the ground up to allow such modular additions of rules without changing the core logic. For example, an institution could even run their own front-end that only allows their KYC’d clients to access Helios, with the protocol enforcing those restrictions at the contract level.